Colorado military families send audio letters

Audio: Jen Brezinka speaks with Ryan Warner

Ross Brezinka hugs his son Brody before leaving for Kuwait.

(Photo: Courtesy of Jen Brezinka)

For military families, one of the hardest things is being separated from a loved one who is deployed overseas. But Jen Brezinka, whose husband Ross is stationed in Kuwait, says she found something that really helped.

A few months ago, Brezinka and three of her five children boarded a special bus at Fort Carson that doubles as a recording studio, and their conversation was recorded. Then Brezinka e-mailed the recording to her husband. It meant her husband could hear things like their daughter Harli, 5, reciting her letters, and get some words of advice from 7-year-old Gavin about fighting battles.

The group that does the recordings is called Military Family Voices and its goal is to give all of the families living at Fort Carson the chance to have their conversations recorded, according to William Kuenning, the group's executive director. And while family members can talk on the phone and Skype, Kuenning says the high-quality recording makes the soldiers feel closer to home.

“The military member overseas can literally within the hour hear those children’s voices, how they’ve grown up, how their voices are changing,” Kuenning says. “And then when they return, the voices of their children aren’t foreign to them. “

Kuenning says the recordings give soldiers a chance to listen to their family’s voices over and over again.

“They come back from a very difficult patrol and can play this to sort of re-center themselves to sort of reduce their stress.”

Plans are underway for a permanent studio on the base. The group has already made thousands of recordings at Fort Carson and organizers hope to bring the project to other military families around the country.